THE WAITING ROOM

When the last words are written in your story, when your path ends, and your journey is complete, your soul is put to eternal rest. Exactly what comes after death is unknown and often debated. Though, many find comfort in the belief that there is life after death and as your tangible life ends your second life begins.

Your final resting place is often said to be determined on the “judgment day”. This day you are judged by your actions in the past life. If your behavior on earth exemplified the requirements to rest in paradise, then the gate swings open revealing the other side. However, if during your lie on earth you did not exemplify the will of the higher being you burn in hell.

However, to me the judgement day is less likely to be a dramatic entry where everyone is wearing long white robes. The “judgement day” is more realistically like a hospital waiting room. It is silent, but not eerie.

There are various types of souls who find themselves slumped in a firm waiting room chair. The behaviors of these souls as they wait reveals there inner being, or their truth. In other words, perhaps the judgement day is not what is being waited for, but rather how a soul behaves while in the waiting room.

In a closer examination of each soul in the waiting room, there are five main behavioral groups in the waiting room: Distance, Watcher, Thought, Anguish, and Stillness.

First, there is Distance. These souls subconsciously refuse to let themselves be sucked into reality, perhaps submerging themselves in a magazine or their cell phone. They souls let themselves, for a moment, be taken away from their surroundings and transported into an alternate reality. One perhaps of an A-List celebrity’s whereabouts. Perhaps, Distance may not be ready to find life after death or have not even begun to explore, much less except, it. For the few moments they choose to push away reality until reality is impossible to escape.

Then of course, we have the Watcher. The Watcher eyes the others in the waiting room. The Watcher category of souls subdivides into Judgement and Empathy. These character traits are highlighted in a simple situation. In the souls’ past life if they saw a person walking down the street in dirty and tattered clothes, Judgement may be more inclined to cross the road while Empathy may be more inclined to rethink their own clean clothes, how they got them, and why they’re wearing them. Neither reaction to the person in tattered clothes is essentially “bad”, nor are the reactions “good”. However, neither Judgement nor Empathy can tear their eyes away from the person in the tattered clothes.

Next there is Thought. These souls are quiet in the waiting room. As Thought sinks deeper into their clinical chair, they watch their lives play out like a movie. Thought stares blankly into the distance. During their past life on earth, Thought often saw itself as a supporting character in someone else’s film. Now, in the waiting room, Thought sees itself as the main character. In other words, Thought now sees themselves as the Sun that every other soul spins around. Thought no longer sees themselves as Mars or Venus, the planets who cannot seem to muster the strength to pull themselves away from The Sun. Thought is more removed than Distance.

Next there is Anguish. Anguish is Thought’s sister in the sense that they are completely absorbed in themselves and their thoughts. At the root of Aguish is pain. That pain has been obtained from the weight of the past life, the regret of the past life, and the guilt of the past life. Anguish may long for what they left in their past life or they may yearn for what they did not have. If Aguish was a physical pain it would not be unlike suffocation. If Anguish found themselves in a real hospital waiting room, in their past life, they would give any worldly possession to have a loved one or themselves healed. Anguish may shed a few tears in public with minimal shame.

And finally there is Stillness. Stillness was not necessarily ready to leave earth, or maybe they were. Either way, Stillness accepts that they are in the waiting room. Stillness also accepts what they are waiting for. Stillness is not excited for the afterlife, nor is Stillness full of dread. Yet, Stillness find themselves ready. Stillness is made up of bits of all the souls in the waiting room. Stillness has Anguish with them because they feel the pain of what and who they have left behind on earth. Stillness also has Thought with them, as Stillness has thoroughly examined and pieced out their new reality. But Stillness is also distant as part of them is still reluctant to continue to fully accept that they are dead, a very human factor. Stillness is watching, though not necessarily the others in the waiting room. Stillness is watching the door, anticipating their name to be called, or to be approached. Stillness is the most complete of all the souls.

Despite the behavior of each of the souls in the waiting room, when the judgement comes, it all evaporates into thin air. Each worry. Each pain. Every human attribute. Except one, which every soul carries with them out of the waiting room and through the gates. Love.

Love is the only human attribute that transcends all worlds. The love you share while alive on earth is left with each soul you have touched. And the love you have received is carried with you to the waiting room. Love is carried with you to paradise. Because, if during your life on earth, you spread love selflessly that is what stays with each soul after you have parted ways. Love or lack there of. If you did not constantly spread love then that is what is your legacy. When you leave the waiting room for "judgement day" you are "judged" by the deepness of your love.

After all, Love always conquers all.